Love News, Tips, Tricks & Ideas

I want to preface this by saying I have a certain fondness for Bandai Namco's anime video game adaptations. Sure, the studio pumps 'em out like Dairy Queen and chocolate soft serve on a hot Phoenix day, and yes, very few of them are objectively great games, but there's a consistency to the way it makes serviceable interactive versions of beloved anime stories that I find comforting. For example, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is a solid 3.5/5 that I happen to love simply because I love the source material, not because the game itself is anything special.

Stardew Valley update 1.6.6 is officially here, and although creator Eric Barone says it's "mostly bug fixes and translation changes," there is a list of "balance and gameplay changes," and among them is one that's a pretty dang big deal for honey farming.

Mortal Kombat 1 fans are arguing about whether or not The Boys' Homelander looks "off" in the recent gameplay clip that was shared by Ed Boon on Twitter.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

We have the solution to Wordle on April 28, as well as some helpful hints to help you figure out the answer yourself, right here. We’ve placed the answer at the bottom of the page, so we don’t ruin the surprise before you’ve had a chance to work through the clues. So let’s dive in, starting with a reminder of yesterday’s answer.

Fallout has been the watercooler TV show this month, an impressive feat for a video game adaptation. Although Bethesda doesn’t have any new Fallout games to release alongside it, the Amazon Prime series has reinvigorated interest in Fallout, with all its titles seeing notable player count increases. For now, we’ll have to be content with a Fallout 4 current-gen upgrade, but I’ll admit that my mind is drifting to thinking about Fallout 5.

May is fast approaching, and with it comes a fresh new slate of exciting movies and TV to watch. As we while away the last days of April, let’s take stock of the best movies on streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Prime, and more that are leaving services this month.

Modern technology has opened up new avenues for entertainment, and large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Gemini are leading the way. These AI marvels have the ability to engage in natural conversations, offering not just productivity assistance but also delightful gaming experiences.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

There's a big, new, shiny PS5 exclusive on the scene, and we expect it'll be a popular pick this weekend. Yes, Stellar Blade is here, and it's well worth checking out if you're in the mood for some good old-fashioned monster-murking action. There's lots of other stuff to play, though, as our team shows with an eclectic mix of PS5 and PS4 titles.

Survios, the team behind PSVR games CREED: Rise to Glory, Sprint Vector, and The Walking Dead Onslaught, has today revealed it's working on a new PSVR2 game set in the Alien universe called Alien: Rogue Incursion. It is described as an «intense single-player, action horror game», set to release for Sony's VR headset later this year alongside Meta Quest 3 and Steam VR versions.

Devsisters is back with yet another Cookie game. This time, it’s CookieRun: Tower of Adventures. The game is now up for pre-registration on Android and iOS. Previously called ‘Project B,’ it’s expected to drop on June 6th, 2024.

Players looking to race through new content might have a bit of a headstart with new Enchantments coming in The War Within — both for Mount Speed and Character Speed! Some particularly interesting Enchantments caught our eye while datamining in The War Within: While most of these Enchantments add the Speed tertiary stat to player character speed, one Enchantment seems to offer an increase in Mounted speed — Cavalry's March. Players have loved effects such as Crusader Aura which increase Mounted speed, and having even a small boost on your Boots would be a welcome gift for players that don't necessarily worry about mix-maxing for raiding or other content.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

We have the solution to Wordle on April 26, as well as some helpful hints to help you figure out the answer yourself, right here. We’ve placed the answer at the bottom of the page, so we don’t ruin the surprise before you’ve had a chance to work through the clues. So let’s dive in, starting with a reminder of yesterday’s answer.

In 10.2.7, a new questline takes us on a trip down Dragonflight's memory lane, as Scalecommander Emberthal considers finally deciding on her visage form.

Fans, all fired up from watching Amazon's excellent adaptation, are returning to Fallout games in droves, with the free PS5 update for Fallout 4 looking particularly appealing. However, with the update in the wild, players who picked up the underrated Fallout 4 via PS Plus Extra find they cannot download it and are instead being prompted to pay for the game.

The Wolf Among Us 2 is the eagerly anticipated sequel to one of Telltale's most beloved games, but news of the endeavour has been surprisingly scarce. Last we heard, the game had been delayed and would not be released in 2023. Thankfully, a familiar face has kept the flame of hope alive.

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, Wrath of the Lich King Classic, Burning Crusade Classic, Season of Discovery, and WoW Classic. Some of the hotfixes below take effect the moment they were implemented, while others may require scheduled realm restarts to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. This list will be updated as additional hotfixes are applied.

Sonic the Hedgehog is having a great year with plenty to look forward to. The third Sonic movie is coming out in December, Knuckles is getting his own show on Paramount+, and Sonic is sharing the spotlight with Shadow in Sonic x Shadow Generations. In the last few years, the Blue Blur has become such a popular video game character in the multimedia landscape that Sega has produced toys to introduce the next generation of fans to the franchise. Older fans can add those toys and plushies to their collection for the sake of nostalgia or for sharing their love of Sonic with their children.

Gran Turismo 7 has been freshly updated to version number 1.46 on PS5 and PS4, with the update adding a new car to the game you won't find anywhere else: the Škoda Vision Gran Turismo. Designed entirely around the Polyphony Digital racer, it's Škoda's first appearance in the franchise and is seen as a «visionary study of a single-seater, all-electric racing concept car».

Questions were no doubt asked about the future of Watch Dogs when the latest game in the series, Watch Dogs Legion, underperformed both critically and commercially (even though its initial sales numbers might have hinted otherwise). The PS5 and PS4 open world title, which first launched in 2020, saw a lot of improvement through post-launch updates and DLC, but the damage had been done long before Ubisoft got around to fixing things.

If you've pre-ordered the Premium Edition for Sea of Thieves off the PS Store, your seafaring quest can now begin on PS5 via five days of early access ahead of the official release date. Making its first appearance on Sony hardware, Rare brought its servers online for PS5 players, allowing them to get started on plundering islands and sailing the seas. This means PlayStation users can play the last few days of Season 11, before the next one starts on the official release date of 30th April 2024.

Who is the real-life model Eve is based on in Stellar Blade? Eve's curves and revealing attire has attracted a lot of fans to Shift Up's console debut, but is she inspired by a real person and who is it? On this page, as part of our Stellar Blade guide, we're going to answer the question: who is the real-life model Eve is based on?

The next-gen version of Fallout 4, which makes the game playable natively on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, is now available to download. For download links, please refer to the below:

Atlus' upcoming RPG, Metaphor: ReFantazio, seems built around systems that wouldn't feel out of place in the developer's Persona series. It's got turn-based battles that hinge on striking enemy weaknesses, it's got warrior spirits that you can summon in combat, and — most crucially to this article — it's got a bonding system where you can hang out with key characters, learning more about them in the process.

If you dig retro reptiles, skateboarding, and fast-paced, bite-sized 'runner-style' grinding gameplay... you have weirdly specific interests... and I have a game you'll love; Skator Gator! As luck would have it, we're giving it away as part of IGN Plus.

You’ve heard of the Lands Between, but have you ever considered the Sands Between? That’s not a joke, that’s a genuine area in Another Crab’s Treasure, and I don’t think anything sums up the exact vibe that this game is going for better than the name of that one area. This is a love letter to and a sendup of so much of what FromSoftware has done, all wrapped up in a very cute crab protagonist just trying to get their home back, and a deeply unsettling message about pollution that we all already know, but don’t often get to play through.

The gaming tech universe is incredibly competitive these days, but there’s always room for new and innovative entries from creators around the world. Hong Kong-based PB Tails are entering the controller arena with the Crush, a Bluetooth 5.0 enabled pad compatible with PC, Switch, iOS and Android. Fully customisable, it boasts Hall Effect sticks and triggers which will last you well into the next generation.

Game developer Fallen Leaf recently partnered with Studios Extraordinaires to develop film and TV adaptations of their 2023 sci-fi shooter-thriller Fort Solis.

I wasn’t expecting to love Stellar Blade. From the overly sexualised outfits that dominated its pre-release discourse, to the boss battles that looked a bit too difficult for my liking, I wouldn’t have been surprised if I bounced right out of it after a few minutes.

We’ve all loved exploring the different regions of the wasteland in the Fallout series alone, but it wasn’t until Fallout 76 that we had the chance to do so with friends. While it wasn’t quite what people were hoping for at launch, years of support have made this an excellent world to explore and go on quests with friends in. While most games released in recent years support cross-platform play between consoles, Fallout 76 came out before that was the standard. If you’ve got a group of friends playing on different systems, will you still be able to enjoy the sights and sounds of the wasteland together? Here’s what you need to know.

We love movie recommendations here at Polygon. Whether it’s horror, sci-fi, action, comedy, thrillers, or just the best of the year, we’re always trying to introduce readers to new and exciting movies they’ll love. But now we want to find the perfect movie for you. (That’s you.)

It’s only been a few days since I loaded my copy of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door onto my Nintendo Switch, but I’ve already played through the entirety of what I can cover in this preview, and let me tell you – it’s been a blast. The Thousand Year Door is one of my favourite, if not my absolute favourite, video game of all time. To see it remade on the Nintendo Switch is amazing, and while some like to grumble about paying full price for old games, Nintendo has done enough here I think to justify the price being charged.

Connections is the latest puzzle game from the New York Times. The game tasks you with categorizing a pool of 16 words into four secret (for now) groups by figuring out how the words relate to each other. The puzzle resets every night at midnight and each new puzzle has a varying degree of difficulty. Just like Wordle, you can keep track of your winning streak and compare your scores with friends.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

A wallet busting array of PS5 and PS4 games have been discounted in Sony’s latest PS Store sale, with over 1,500 titles up for grabs at up to 80 per cent off. Highlights include Monster Hunter Rise and Resident Evil 4 for record lows of just £8.24 and £15.05 respectively. The offers will run through 8th May.

Rumblings of a follow-up to SEGA's Sonic Frontiers are currently doing the rounds. Referred to simply as Sonic Frontiers 2, a couple of known leakers have said the project is currently in development.

Baldur's Gate 3's extremely tempting PS5 physical Deluxe Edition was revealed in September and almost immediately sold out, with the expansive RPG launching first as a digital-only title. Demand convinced developer Larian Studios otherwise; the first round of orders is due to leave warehouses by the end of April. Keep this next part on the down-low, but Baldur's Gate 3's PS5 Deluxe Edition is actually back in stock over at Larian's merch store right now.

As we continue to see walls being torn down between platforms, more people are getting exposed to former exclusives than ever before. On the PlayStation side, we're getting our first look at Grounded, formerly only available to Xbox and PC players for the last four years. If you're not in the Xbox ecosystem, you might not know much about the game, so allow us to get you up to speed: Grounded is a highly involved cooperative survival game that will encapsulate you and your friends as you endure the horrors of being the size of a bug.

It seems that the cat is indeed out of the bag, as we now have a release date and some additional gameplay for the slightly disturbing Gori: Cuddly Carnage. Prepare to skate 'n' slash your way through a freakish feline world from 29th August on PS5 and PS4.

Sony and Shift Up have published an online comic book for Stellar Blade that appears to serve as a quick prequel to the events of the main game. Available to read through this link, it sees protagonist Eve and another character called Tachy sparring together, and then speaking of an upcoming mission to reclaim Earth. This is what you shall be doing in Stellar Blade once it hits PS5 on Friday.

It seems we aren't the only ones counting down the hours until the release of the PS5 exclusive Stellar Blade. Developer Shift Up has posted an impossibly drawn-out clip of the «secrets» contained within the game's PS5 physical box, which, as far as we can tell, amounts to a reversible cover/dust jacket and a download code for some cosmetic goodies.

Commander Shepard has been the face of Mass Effect since its inception in 2007, but their story came to a close in ME3 over ten years ago. Still, some fans hoped to see them return in the new game, canonising the one ending where they survive, but that doesn't look likely.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

After yesterday's devastating loss, we needed a win in today's , and we scored it. One of our favorite ways to win is to get each category in the order the game provides as 'most straightforward' to 'trickiest' which is yellow, green, blue, and purple. Today's win was exactly that, and it felt like redemption.

Pokemon has been gradually adding to its Squishmallows collection two plushes at a time, and Dragonite and Marill will be the next Pokemon to get the Squishmallow treatment as they have now been confirmed to release this summer. While it seems to have a handle on the stock/demand balance now, Pokemon didn't anticipate just how popular its Squishmallows would be to begin with. That's why the original four are still hard to find, but two of them are not only back in stock at Walmart, but they're half price.

Here you'll find a list of hotfixes that address various issues related to World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, Wrath of the Lich King Classic, Burning Crusade Classic, Season of Discovery, and WoW Classic. Some of the hotfixes below take effect the moment they were implemented, while others may require scheduled realm restarts to go into effect. Please keep in mind that some issues cannot be addressed without a client-side patch update. This list will be updated as additional hotfixes are applied.

A thrilling JRPG called Bloodline: The Last Royal Vampire just came out for Android devices in Southeast Asia (SEA) and India! The game is based on a famous Chinese graphic novel. It’s about Lilo, the last royal vampire, and her friend Ren, who are trying to keep their loved ones safe from the Holy Land, a mysterious force.

Bumi: Next Stop, Earth! is a new game by Blamorama Games that dropped right on Earth Day. It’s a game but it’s also about getting eco-conscious and giving a little love to our planet. This is the first game by Blamorama Games. Apparently, the devs have plans for more games, comics and even films in the pipeline.

When it comes to games focused on goofy fun, is the new kid on the block. Developed by Lightfox Games and published by Mad Mushroom, this goofy party brawler bears an obvious resemblance to cartoony physics-based titles like and, throwing twenty players into an arena to duke it out in various challenges. It's easy and free to pick up and play, and the element of chaos means that even newcomers should have a good chance against veterans.

Jon “Ninjon” Ninas is a successful YouTuber, well known by both the algorithm and the hobby community as an excellent and exciting painter and presenter. As of last month, he’s also a Golden Demon winner, having taken home the bronze award in the Unit or Warcry Warband category at AdeptiCon 2024. This was Ninas’ third time entering the prestigious contest sponsored by Games Workshop, but only his first medal win so far.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

Lightfox Games and Mad Mushroom have teamed up to bring gamers a new physics-based brawler called Rumble Club. It’s a quirky game with ultimate clumsy battles. It’s free to play and offers in-app purchases to snag some special passes and gems.

If you are a fan of Starship Troopers the movie, you’ll really love Helldivers 2. It takes that hyper-militarized world and the excellent satire and completely immerses you in it, providing for a thrilling and absolutely hilarious experience overall. It’s also been a massive hit, and it often has well over 100,000 concurrent players at any given moment, even though it’s a couple of months past its launch date. As such, if you want to dive into the fun, then you can grab the game for much for 15% off at CDKeys, which brings it down to $34 from $40.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

As the weather (hopefully) turns nicer and the days get longer, it’s hard to think about being inside watching TV. Which is why it’s good that this week’s offerings are so easy to pop on at your leisure: Whether it’s the charms of Netflix’s Dead Boy Detectives — based on a comic written by Neil Gaiman — or the hard-won pleasures of Shōgun’s final episode, or even the fighting spirit of We’re Here season 4 or Knuckles, there’s a lot to love this week.

It’s been 13 years since PlayStation fans last got their hands on a digital racquet in the TopSpin series. In that time, we’ve jumped two console generations, and the industry has seen a massive shift towards the live service model. Put together, what does that mean for the series’ return in TopSpin 2K25? Good things, apparently, as Hangar 13 has cooked up a fun, flashy, and addictive tennis title that you’ll enjoy coming to grips with and love mastering.

Ember Lab will seemingly be spreading its wings for pastures new in the future as a new ESRB rating all but confirms an Xbox Series X|S version of Kena: Bridge of Spirits is in the works. First released for the PS5, PS4, and PC in September 2021, the Xbox port could bring up to three years of console exclusivity to an end. Ember Lab developed and put the indie game out itself, so no publishing ties with Sony have been cut despite how much the platform holder marketed it.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

Sony loves filing patents for gaming ideas that'll, more than likely, never come to fruition. It's done it again with a recent listing that focuses on the idea of «auto-playing portions of a video game».

Kwalee, the British video game developer and publisher, is now diving into the Casual gaming scene with Text Express: Word Adventure. In case you don’t know, they’ve published hits like Teacher Simulator and Airport Security with over 1 billion downloads on mobile.

Teapot Games has just launched AeroMayhem PvP: Air Combat Ace on Android. It’s an air combat simulation where you fly a fighter jet and take on enemies across vast maps. Based in India, Teapot Games has published other air combat titles like War Dogs: Air Combat Flight S and Jumbo Jet Flight Simulator.

It seems we aren't the only ones counting down the hours until the release of the PS5-exclusive Stellar Blade. Developer ShiftUp has posted an impossibly drawn-out clip of the «secrets» contained within the game's PS5 physical box, which, as far as we can tell, amounts to a reversible cover/dust jacket and a download code for some cosmetic goodies.

Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes will receive a sequel, despite the passing of its director and studio co-founder.

A side quest in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth reveals that Jessie was planning to make a love potion pizza for Cloud in Final Fantasy 7 Remake, or that she was at least aware of the ingredients.

Warning: Major Fallout season one spoilers ahead!

Team Ninja's is one of the most expansive RPGs of 2024. The game features a complex combat system, a detailed skill tree, important story choices, and bonds that can lead to romance, otherwise known as Veiled Vows. There are several ways to develop bonds with characters in, including bringing them on missions, giving them gifts, and agreeing with them in conversation.

Love crossword puzzles but don’t have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That’s what The Mini is for!

Fallout fans are an interesting bunch. So many characters in the series are morally dubious, lacking basic empathy, non-human, or perhaps even a winning combination of the three. So, you'd think that would leave us with very few heartthrobs to choose from, but you'd be wrong. It just means we have what some would call an acquired taste, accumulating in many players finding ghoul characters pretty hot in particular.

Artificial intelligence, while promising, is now being exploited by criminals to deceive unsuspecting phone users. With AI, voices can be cloned rapidly, leading to convincing replicas used to swindle money or sensitive information from friends and family.

It's a bad time to enjoy platformers built on community level creations, as LittleBigPlanet 3 servers have shut down just a week after support for Wii U servers and Super Mario Maker were killed. But while Nintendo fans got to say goodbye to their game, the death of LittleBigPlanet came as a sudden shock.

Zenless Zone Zero CBT3 testers got a taste of new features! It began yesterday and shocked players; here’s why! You can team up for weekly boss challenges or choose your favorite character with a new guaranteed pull system.

Though Fallout creator Tim Cain has not been involved in the series in over 20 years, he still keeps up with the franchise. Case in point, he recently shared his thoughts on the first season of Prime Video's Fallout TV series.

If you asked me what my favourite football née soccer game is, it wouldn’t be anything as prosaic as FIFA, Pro Evo or Football Manager. It wouldn’t even be Sega Soccer Slam – though that’s a close second. It would be Inazuma Eleven. The fact that it is as much a Pokémon-esque RPG where you’re collecting football players as it is an actual game of football only makes it better. As does the fact that it, and its mainline sequels, were all played with the Nintendo DS’ stylus. If I’m being honest, the fact that it’s only vaguely a football game at all is probably what makes it my favourite football game.

Belka Games is about to immerse itself in the enchanting world of Eastern culture. Clockmaker, the much loved match-three puzzler from the developer, is about to embark on a season of events and giveaways set in Japan.